File Photo. Arif Ali—AFP
Militants on Sunday night attacked a police station in Dera Ismail Khan, with the enforcers repelling the attackers after a gunbattle that least nearly 90 minutes.
The fourth such attack on security personnel in Dera Ismail Khan within 48 hours, the militant assault injured one police constable, Waheed Gul, but no other casualties were reported. Authorities said the gunmen had attacked the Gul Imam Police Station in the Tank area of D.I. Khan with heavy weapons, but were promptly retaliated by police. They said the ensuing gunfight, which lasted an hour-and-a-half, was eventually repulsed with the attackers all fleeing the scene.
Injured constable Gul, said the authorities, had been shifted to the Tank District Headquarters Hospital for treatment.
Following the attack, District Police Officer (DPO) Iftikhar Ali Shah and other officials reached the site and cordoned off the area. Law enforcers also conducted a search operation to locate suspects, but there has been no confirmation of any arrests.
Speaking with media, Regional Police Officer Dera Nasir Mahmoodisti said the militants had sought to demoralize the police force but had failed. “I am proud of my forces, who are acting like a wall in front of the militants and doing their duty bravely,” he added.
Separately, another policeman was injured when terrorists targeted a checkpost in the Roori area of the Kulachi tehsil. According to police, the attackers used small and heavy weapons and fled the area after a brief exchange of fire.
The latest attacks occurred within 48 hours of a bombing targeting a police van in D.I. Khan’s Tank Adda area. The remote-controlled explosion killed at least six people and injured over 30 others, including two policemen. Also on Friday, an explosion near a police and Army convoy martyred a security officer in the Takwara area of Kulachi.
There has been a marked resurgence of terrorism nationwide, particularly in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in Kabul in August 2021. Both the civil and military leaderships have vowed zero tolerance for militants, with authorities also linking a repatriation policy targeting undocumented migrants with “safety and security” of Pakistanis after alleging that 14 of the 24 suicide attacks in Pakistan thus far this year had the involvement of Afghan nationals.